I lived in Mississippi and visited often as a teen it is finally catching up

So many things seemed to have been so different for me in Mississippi. I worked in the fields and kept house at the age of nine. I was not allowed in town alone and we all had dogs and shotguns at our doors. As a child I could not understand the impending dangers. Once I went to church with my family and when we came out my cousin had been lynched and was hanging from a tree not far from the church. Officially slavery was abolished on the books in the state of Mississippi in May of 1995 yes just 11 years ago even after the civil rights movement. The only good thing about that is it was someone like me whose great grandparents were slaves that pushed for that measure to come to pass. Still we live in towns named after our slave owners. Just in recent years the people who have a lot of family have the roads named after themselves. Why if we are Americans is it that we African Americans are the only ones that vote according to a voters rights act? Does that mean one day we will be forbidden to vote again? The voters rights act was renewed for 25 more years and expired last year, now here we go again when will it be made a law. Why is it we are taxed like everyone else and treated differently? Ever wonder why so many large groups of people have the same last name and think they are family? How would you feel to find out you are not related by blood but by slave owner?

No it is not impossible it is a fact and unless we all stop and search for our selves we will never know the truth. If you really want to know don't just search documents but talk to the people in your family reach out to your ancestors and their childhood friends and family because some things are so unmentionable it only exists in the treasure of the minds of those who survived it.